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Disgraced Yahoo CEO Thompson Gets No Severance But Still Departs With $7 Million

How does earning $56K a day sound? That’s what former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson just walked away with, after 124 total days (and fewer business days) on the job and a departure marred by a resume scandal.

Though Thompson isn’t receiving a severance payment, he gets to keep the “make-whole” cash bonus and restricted stock units that had vested, which were valued at $7 million when he joined Yahoo in January.

Yahoo! and Mr. Thompson agreed to terminate all other agreements between them, including Mr. Thompson’s offer letter, all outstanding but not fully vested equity awards and Yahoo!’s other plans and arrangements for the benefit of employees, with no severance compensation. However, in accordance with the terms of his offer letter, Mr. Thompson retained the make-whole cash bonus previously paid to him under his offer letter and the make-whole restricted stock units that had been granted to him pursuant to his offer letter and that had already vested.

According to the hiring filing, Thompson’s original agreement with Yahoo called for him to be paid a severance fee if “…Mr. Thompson’s employment is terminated by the Company without cause or by Mr. Thompson for good reason….” This indicates Thompson’s departure was considered to be with cause — the resume flap that began when activist investor Third Point publicly revealed that Thompson’s public biography, which listed him as having a computer science degree, was incorrect.

Though Thompson denied actively fudging the qualifications, he personally certified a SEC filing that listed the incorrect information. In a radio interview, he didn’t deny having the degree despite being specifically asked about it.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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About The Author

Pamela Parker is Executive Features Editor at Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. She's a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ, and worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing.